Greeting

1 Paul, a servant¹ of Christ Jesus, ^acalled to be an apostle, ^bset apart for the ^cgospel of God, 2 which he ^dpromised beforehand ^ethrough his prophets ^fin the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning his Son, who was ^gdescended from David² according to the flesh 4 and was ^hdeclared to be the ⁱSon of God ^jin power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 ^kthrough whom we have received grace and ^lapostleship to bring about the ^mobedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, 6 including you who are ⁿcalled to belong to Jesus Christ,

7 To all those in Rome who are loved by God and ^ocalled to be ^psaints:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Longing to Go to Rome

8 First, ^qI thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because ^ryour faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For ^sGod is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that ^twithout ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 ^uFor I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual ^vgift to ^wstrengthen you— 12 that is, that we may ^xbe mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. 13 I do not want you to be unaware, brothers,³ that I have often intended to come to you (but ^ythus far have been prevented), in order that I may reap some ^zharvest among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles. 14 ^aI am under obligation both to Greeks and to ^bbarbarians,^{4 c}both to the wise and to the foolish. 15 So I am eager ^dto preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

The Righteous Shall Live by Faith

16 For I am not ^eashamed of the gospel, for it is the ^fpower of God for salvation to everyone who believes, ^gto the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the ^hrighteousness of God is ⁱrevealed from faith for faith,⁵ as it is written, ^j“The righteous shall live by faith.”⁶

God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness

18 ^kFor the ^lwrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and ^munrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For ⁿwhat can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, ^ohave been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,⁷ in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but ^pthey became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, ^qthey became fools, 23 and ^rexchanged the glory of the immortal God for images ^sresembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.

24 Therefore ^tGod gave them up in the ^ulusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a ^vlie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, ^wmen committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due ^xpenalty for their error.

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, ^yhaughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s ^zrighteous decree that those who practice such things ^adeserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

His Steadfast Love Endures Forever